M&A · Financials · Life Insurance
Aquarian Holdings VI L.P. to acquire Brighthouse Financial, Inc.
Announced Nov 6, 2025 · Pending Dec 23, 2025
Deal value$4.10B
Premium37.0%To unaffected price
EV / Adj. EBITDA—
ConsiderationAll cash$70.00 per share
Transaction
- Acquirer
- Aquarian Holdings VI L.P.
- Target
- Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (BHF)
- Buyer type
- Strategic
- Offer price per share
- $70.00
- Enterprise value
- —
- Status
- Pending Dec 23, 2025
Deal protections
- Break fee (target pays)
- $144M · 3.5%
- Reverse fee (buyer pays)
- $226M · 5.5%
- Go-shop
- No-shop
- Financing
- Committed · Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo
Advisors
- To the acquirer
- RBC Capital Markets
- To the target
- Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs
- Goldman Sachs fee
- $41.0M
- Wells Fargo fee
- $41.0M
Sector context · Financials
- Comparable deals
- 60 in the prior 24 months
- Premium
- 37.0% vs. 38.5% sector median
- EV / Adj. EBITDA
- Sector median 13.1x
- Break fee
- 3.5% vs. 3.7% sector median
Timeline
- AnnouncedNov 6, 2025
- Proxy filedDec 23, 2025
- Definitive proxyJan 7, 2026
- Shareholder votePending
- ClosedPending
Valuation · fairness opinions
Future share priceGoldman Sachs$28.11$63.27
Precedent transactionsGoldman Sachs$37.96$171.53
Premiums paidGoldman Sachs$56.03$73.28
Trading comparablesWells Fargo$49.21$77.26
Trading comparablesWells Fargo$41.95$75.45
Precedent transactionsWells Fargo$42.18$70.25
Discounted cash flowWells Fargo$34.73$56.92
Offer $70.00
Implied value per Brighthouse Financial, Inc. share by analysis, from Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo · DCF discount rate 11.4%–14.4%.